I'm off on the first of my three trips over this next three-week period. *waves* See you soon! I hope all is well with you, my friends.

FYI, an update about reading Sherlock Holmes pastiches...

More than a year ago, I asked for recommendations of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and received great replies. (Thank you!) I waited until I'd finished going through all of Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical Holmesian writings in order, but now I've embarked on my pastiche reading. I'm still only "baby steps" into the project, but I thought I'd list the novels I've read thus far, ranked in order from my most favorite to my least favorite. My reviews are general, and though they may contain a few spoilers about the premise of a given work, they don't give away any twist endings or key surprises.

There are new entries on my list since the last time I posted an update (and a new title since my general post last week, as well)!

Novels

Most Favorite Novel Thus Far: Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye (2009) Read my review.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories by John Taylor (2010) Read my review.

I had difficulty ranking the "middling books" that I quite liked, from The Adventure of the Innsmouth Whaler down to The Apocalypse Murders; on any given day, I might rearrange those a bit. I'd recommend all of these except Trow's and Taylor's to fans of Holmes in general, but I'd still recommend Taylor's to those specifically who are fans of Benedict Cumberbatch.

Collections

The Thames Horror and Other Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Barbara Roden (2011)Read my review.

Yay indeed! I really did enjoy it a lot. I just read Klaver's other Holmesian story (Holmes and Dracula fight Moriarty) - out of order, it seems - and liked that one quite a lot, too. But I felt The Innsmouth Whaler really captured that horror/dread atmosphere well. So glad to know that you agree!